Cult Dream
by Will Apollo
Summary: A strange dream I had the other night. It meanders in the way of dreams and turns dark.


Enclosed is the strange and winding tale I dreamt last night. I often dream vividly, but never so bizarrely. So it was, when I awoke I needed to write down all I could remember.

At first memory I found myself talking to a daughter of an old friend. In the way of dreams she didn't speak but we communicated. For a very long time it was over distance, but I could see her as she grew from a young girl to a beautiful young woman with long curly black hair, and dark eyes. She lived on a small sailed ship and spent her time sailing up and down the American Atlantic coast.

I loved her as if she were my own child. Indeed she reminded me of a girl I once knew and often thought that this young woman would look like our child. One day I finally met her and came aboard her small ship. I was happy to finally meet her in person. The sky was dark and the waves were choppy. As we spoke she mistook my fatherly affection for lust. She was afraid and asked that I leave.

I was deeply saddened, for I had looked forward to spending time with her and on the sea, but I said that I would go. As I left she said that she had an aunt or great aunt(older female familial relation) in Ireland, or a brother or uncle(younger male familiar relation) living to the South (Southern Florida and the Northern Half of the Carribean), and would sail away to be with them for awhile. I said goodbye and left her to her own adventures.

I was aimless for a while afterwards. Eventually though I was in dire straits and needed a job. A friend was able to find me a job at a club. This club catered to the wealthy, the very wealthy, and those that aspired to be so. My friend pushed a wadded up grey t-shirt, the uniform of the club along with dark slacks, into my arms and told me that I may see an old acquaintance of mine, Derek Sawyer, there.

I hurriedly put on the shirt and wandered around looking for things to do. This club mostly functioned as a restaurant and meeting place. It had rooms upon rooms with opulent chairs and tables. I accidentally stumbled into someone carrying away a tray, and spilled a drink all over my uniform grey shirt.

I was able to find one of my old black shirts and swapped them out. I finally wandered into a large auditorium with a tall stage.

The room had a fair amount of obscenely wealthy, powerful, and very privileged people. As I watched I realized they were some kind of cult. A man approached the stage and gave the man standing on top of it, some sort of priest, a few small charms or pins. These pins were mementos of his life thus far and were presumably representations of his blessings since joining the cult. After giving them to the priest he was given a charm or two in return and waited in front of the stage for something. When nothing happened he returned the pins and rejoined the audience or congregation.

The priest was irritated and finally noticed me watching. He became even more annoyed; not with the secret cult being found out, but with the new help not working and obviously out of uniform while an important event was taking place at the club. I hurriedly tried to put on the damp grey shirt by sliding it over my current shirt and attempting to take off the black one underneath. The haste in turn took longer than it would have taken normally to change, as both shirts caught multiple times on head and arms. All the while the priest waited and grew more irate.

Finally finished, the priest asked me to stand before the stage. I lined up with several more grey shirted staff that had each offended the cult in some manner. I learned that we were to be sacrificed. Occasionally a great worm, taller than a man and with a great thick skin, burrowed through the sides of the auditorium and consumed members of the cult in passing. The cult members submitted mementos of their life and on being sacrificed were given some in return signifying their entire life accomplishments. It was considered an incredible offense when no other memento could be found that suited you and you were given some of your own upon being submitted for sacrifice. We didn't belong to the cult and were given no mementos.

We waited awhile and once again the worm did not pass through. Now the priest was angry. At a loss for what to do he handed me some mementos and asked me to select new sacrifices for the great worm. I gathered up a dozen people and begin to hand out mementos. I don't know what else I gave out, but I remember the last three. An old handheld mechanical calculator went to a mathematician that had worked in some way with rockets, propulsion, or a space program. A young blonde woman received a slide ruler. The last item was an old German calendar. For a while both the priest and I were at a loss for who to give it to. Finally I asked if anyone knew German or Sprechen Deutsch. At that last a thin old woman sheepishly raised her hand. Somehow I knew that she had committed terrible crimes and had never had to face justice for them.

As I handed out the last of the mementos something felt right to me about the selection. A soft rumbling began, as a smile crept onto my face and darkness crept into my heart

I woke up after that and spent the next hour and a half trying to chronicle the strange dream.


End file.
